ANN LOVEJOY | Pruning roses and other late winter chores

By late February, spring is truly on the way. There may still be a hard frost or two, but that won't bother the emerging bulbs one bit. Buds are already breaking on shrubs and trees and cut stems of flowering currant or forsythia will open in a few days when brought inside.

It's finally time to trim back ornamental grasses; as soon as you see a little green at the base, you can remove the dead upper growth. To avoid molds, remove all old foliage from hellebores (any leaves that are falling downward).

When it's too cold and wet to plant, we can keep ourselves busy by pruning roses. Just as with any shrub, pruning roses begins with the removal of deadwood. Deadwood is usually grey rather than brown and shows no hint of green when you lightly scratch the bark. On aging roses, the oldest wood is rather gnarly looking.

Use a sharp pruning saw to remove the lumpy, oldest wood, taking care not to nick good green branches as you work. If you are making a crowded cut, wrap a thick plastic pad over the branches you want to protect. (Flexible plastic hotpads — stolen from the kitchen — work great.)

Now you are probably looking at a thicket of slimmer, greener branches. Start thinning by removing any broken, weak or contorted branches. Next, take off any branches that rub on or cross another. Make flush cuts just above the branch collar and never leave stubs; these are entry points for rot and disease and ugly to boot.

With a tea rose or smaller shrub rose, the goal is to reduce each plant to 5-7 sturdy branches. If you want practice, start with overgrown (thus well-established) rose bushes, which are forgiving and hard to kill.

By creating better air flow and eliminating crowding, we can reduce or eliminate a lot of rose woes, from black spot to powdery mildew. Another great way to have happy, healthy roses is by planting the right kinds in the first place.

Researchers at Texas A&M University extension service have developed a lengthy list of Earthkind roses that need little or no care, even in their challenging climate. To qualify for the Earthkind designation, roses must thrive without fertilizing or spraying for pests and must not need annual pruning or deadheading. In addition, Earthkind roses adapt cheerfully to intense heat and humidity, take acid or alkaline soils in stride, and need minimal summer watering.

A combination of old roses, hardy species, and tough hybrids of various types, the Earthkind collection starts with the tough old climber, New Dawn, a soft pink rose that earned Plant Patent #1 and is still widely available. Other easily found Earthkind roses are Carefree Beauty (a small shrub rose with ruffly pink blossoms), a dazzling hybrid tea called Knockout, and Seafoam, an old-fashioned, baby pink polyantha.Contact Ann Lovejoy, 8959 Battle Point Drive NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.